Amazon gives UK customers early e-book access with Kindle First

Amazon gives UK customers early e-book access with Kindle First

Jamie Rigg

Engadget

While Amazon tends to release new e-reader and tablet hardware in the UK and US simultaneously these days, we're still not top priority when it comes to new services. That being said, the UK has caught up significantly in the past week with the launch of the all-you-can-read Kindle Unlimited subscription and now, Kindle First. Amazon runs a bunch of publishing houses, and what Kindle First offers is early access to new releases originating from them. Each month, Amazon editors will select four books scheduled for publication the following month, and let you buy one (and only one) of them in e-book form for 99 pence, or snag one for free if you're a Prime member. Once you've registered, it's basically as simple as that. You can head to the Kindle First page now to check out the selections for this month, and sign up for the newsletter if you'd like to know when other titles become available for pre-release reading.

Source: Amazon

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Uber for Business now automatically expenses taxis in 45 countries

Uber for Business now automatically expenses taxis in 45 countries

Daniel Cooper

Engadget

The nice thing about traveling for work is that you can hop in a taxi without worrying about the cost since, after all, you're not picking up the tab. The downside of that privilege is that, about a week or two after that, you'll have to sit down and tediously justify your expenditure to your boss. That's not a problem, however, if your company has signed up with Uber for Business, which sends the bills straight to the firm instead of piling on your own credit card. Until now, however, that service was only available in the US and Canada, with a few trials taking place in the UK and France. As you might have guessed from the headline, today's the day that the company opens up Uber for Business to all of the 45 countries in which it operates. Now all we have to do is work out if we can pretend that our hand slipped and we hit the Uber Lux button by mistake.
Source: Uber

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U.S. charges four with stealing $100 million in software, data

U.S. charges four with stealing $100 million in software, data

By Aruna Viswanatha

Reuters

WASHINGTON - Four members of an alleged international computer hacking ring were charged with stealing more than $100 million worth of software and data - some of it used to train military pilots and some related to Microsoft Corp's (MSFT.O) Xbox gaming console - the U.S. Justice Department said Tuesday.

Two of the four - a 28-year-old New Jersey man and a 22-year-old Canadian man - pleaded guilty to charges contained in an indictment unsealed earlier in the day, the agency said.
Prosecutors said the ring gained unauthorized access to the computer networks of Microsoft and some of its partners between January 2011 and March 2014 to steal source code, technical specifications and other information.

Some of the intrusions were directed at the Xbox One gaming console before its November 2013 release. The hackers tried to build a counterfeit version of the console, according to the indictment.
The hackers also stole information about pre-release versions of the “Gears of War 3” and “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3” video games, prosecutors said.

Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft declined to comment on the case.
The men were also accused of logging into a U.S. Army network to steal simulator software for the Boeing (BA.N) Apache attack helicopter, the Justice Department said.
Those attacks occurred after the ring hacked into the network of Zombie Studios, a Seattle-based video game developer contracted by the Army to make the training software, according to the indictment.

The men allegedly obtained access to the computer networks partly by using the stolen user names and passwords of employees at the partner firms.
Sanadodeh Nesheiwat of Washington, New Jersey and David Pokora of Mississauga, Ontario pleaded guilty to charges in Delaware federal court, the Justice Department said.

Nathan Leroux, 20, of Bowie, Maryland, and Austin Alcala, 18, of McCordsville, Indiana, were also charged in an 18-count superseding indictment. A fifth member of the ring who is an Australian citizen was charged under Australian law for his alleged role in the conspiracy, the agency said.
Tuesday's charges marked the second big hacking case announced by the Department of Justice this year.

In May, the agency charged five Chinese military officers and accused them of hacking into American nuclear, metal and solar companies to steal trade secrets.

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Samsung rejects claims of Galaxy Note defect

Samsung rejects claims of Galaxy Note defect

Kim Dong-Hyun

AFP

Samsung on Wednesday rejected claims that its new oversized smartphone had a defect, after some customers posted pictures of a gap between the frame and display panel.

The South Korean electronics giant, which had poked fun at rival Apple over reports that its new iPhone model was susceptible to bending, said the "Gapgate" complaints concerning the Galaxy Note 4 were groundless.

After the "phablet" went on sale in China and South Korea on Friday, a number of South Korean users posted or tweeted pictures showing how a business card could be inserted between the display panel and the frame.

Some warned the gap would collect dirt and might even allow fluid into the device.
Samsung insisted the gap was a natural part of design that "does not impact the functionality or quality" of the phone.

"We assure our customers that all Galaxy Note 4 units meet our strict manufacturing and quality control standards," it said in a statement.

A company spokesman added that the model had passed rigorous tests for dirt protection and water resistance.

The Galaxy Note 4 is important for Samsung, which brought the launch forward, apparently with the aim of getting it into the China market before the new iPhone 6, and larger iPhone 6 Plus.

Samsung initially pioneered the market for the "phablet" devices sized between a smartphone and a tablet computer when it introduced the Galaxy Note series in 2011.

The two rivals have locked horns for years in their battle to dominate the global smartphone market, suing each other for alleged patent violations and using aggressive advertising.

In a recent ad for Galaxy Note, Samsung showed a bent phone bowing to a straight phone with a line "Bend to those who are worthy".

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Apple Watch has a smaller screen in tweaked video

Apple Watch has a smaller screen in tweaked video

Steve Dent

Engadget

Apple has released a new version of its Apple Watch design video, and a perceptive viewer noticed a slightly different design from the original.
Most noticeable is a smaller sapphire screen and larger bezel on the Watch render, which appears to more closely match the prototype hardware we saw last month.
None of this too surprising -- Apple had no doubt prepared the video using 3D renders before the final design was locked, and the changes are small enough that most folks won't care.
Still, it does make us wonder if there may be more fine-tuning before production starts in January, especially given rumors of battery-life issues.
Source: Khaos Tian (Twitter)

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Reddit To Give Bitcoin-Style Currency To Users

Reddit To Give Bitcoin-Style Currency To Users

Sky News 

The website - which describes itself as 'the front page of the internet' - has just finished a $50m (£30m) funding round.

All of the investors have agreed to set aside 10% of the round's proceeds to give back to the community.

Reddit chief executive Yishan Wong said the company was considering creating a cryptocurrency backed by the shares, which will be distributed based on a user's contribution to the site.

He said: "The investors have explicitly agreed to this in their investment terms."
The latest investors include PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel, actor Jared Leto, hip-hop star Snoop Dogg, and Mr Wong.

In a blog post, Mr Wong said reddit - founded in 2005 - had always operated "on a shoestring budget".

He added: "We've long been trying to find a way for the community to own some of reddit, because it is your contributions that help to anchor the site and give it strength.

"We think we've come up with a way. Led by Sam, the investors in this round have proposed to give 10% of their shares back to the community, in recognition of the central role the community plays in reddit's ongoing success.

"We're going to need to figure out a bunch of details to make it work, but we're hopeful. We'll have more specifics to share about it soon, but in the meantime we wanted to mention it here."

Cryptocurrencies are digital currencies which are not backed by a nation or bank. Bitcoin is the best-known and most valuable.

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Apple Said to Add Gold Option to IPad in Effort to Boost Sales

Apple Said to Add Gold Option to IPad in Effort to Boost Sales

Tim Culpan and Peter Burrows

Bloomberg

Oct. 1 (Bloomberg) -- Apple Inc. will add a gold color option for its full-size iPads in an effort to boost a category that’s posted declining shipments this year, according to people familiar with the plans.

New versions of the company’s 9.7-inch iPads, anticipated to be unveiled this month, will include gold as a choice of colors for the rear metal cover, adding to the silver and gray available for the lighter iPad Air, the people said, asking not to be identified ahead of an announcement. That brings the color palette into line with the iPhone 5s, which come with silver or gold backs for models with a white faceplate, and space gray for those with a black front.

Teresa Brewer, a spokeswoman for Cupertino, California- based Apple, declined to comment.

Sales of the iPad have declined for the past two quarters after soaring from $5 billion when the product was introduced in 2010 to $30 billion in 2012.

 Last year, iPad sales produced $32 billion.

Apple hasn’t introduced a new iPad since last October, and consumers have instead been shifting to iPhones with larger screens, such as Apple’s new iPhone 6 Plus, which has a 5.5 inch screen. 

Roughly half the consumers polled by RBC Capital Networks in the days after the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus were announced on Sept. 9 opted for the 6 Plus, wrote RBC Capital Markets analyst Amit Daryanani in a Sept. 17 note.

Apple has used color to goose sales of products many times in the past, starting with the introduction of candy-colored iMacs in 1999. The strategy has had varied levels of success. Sales of the iPhone 5c, a lower-end model introduced in 2013 that came in a range of bright colors, were disappointing, said Daryanani.

The more important milestone will be the introduction of a larger iPad, said Daryanani, because it would appeal to new types of customers, particularly business people. This device, which is set to have a 12.9-inch screen, won’t be introduced until next year, people with knowledge of the situation have said.

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Samsung rejects claims of Galaxy Note defect

Samsung rejects claims of Galaxy Note defect

Kim Dong-Hyun

AFP

Samsung on Wednesday rejected claims that its new oversized smartphone had a defect, after some customers posted pictures of a gap between the frame and display panel.

The South Korean electronics giant, which had poked fun at rival Apple over reports that its new iPhone model was susceptible to bending, said the "Gapgate" complaints concerning the Galaxy Note 4 were groundless.

After the "phablet" went on sale in China and South Korea on Friday, a number of South Korean users posted or tweeted pictures showing how a business card could be inserted between the display panel and the frame.

Some warned the gap would collect dirt and might even allow fluid into the device.
Samsung insisted the gap was a natural part of design that "does not impact the functionality or quality" of the phone.

"We assure our customers that all Galaxy Note 4 units meet our strict manufacturing and quality control standards," it said in a statement.

A company spokesman added that the model had passed rigorous tests for dirt protection and water resistance.

The Galaxy Note 4 is important for Samsung, which brought the launch forward, apparently with the aim of getting it into the China market before the new iPhone 6, and larger iPhone 6 Plus.

Samsung initially pioneered the market for the "phablet" devices sized between a smartphone and a tablet computer when it introduced the Galaxy Note series in 2011.

The two rivals have locked horns for years in their battle to dominate the global smartphone market, suing each other for alleged patent violations and using aggressive advertising.
In a recent ad for Galaxy Note, Samsung showed a bent phone bowing to a straight phone with a line "Bend to those who are worthy".

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A closer look at Windows 10

A closer look at Windows 10

Tom Warren

The Verge 

Microsoft officially unveiled Windows 10 this morning, and the company is planning to distribute a Technical Preview of the new operating system tomorrow. At Microsoft's event today there were a number of machines running the Windows 10 Technical Preview, and I got an opportunity to briefly explore the new OS. While Microsoft pushed hard with touch on Windows 8, Windows 10 is the complete opposite. If you mouse into the corners to find the tricky Charms Bar they no longer trigger and frustrate. Instead, you're greeted with the familiar Windows desktop and Start Menu from the moment you use Windows 10. It's Windows 7 right now and very early in its development, but it has some interesting improvements waiting inside.

The Start Menu returns to focus Windows on the desktop

The Start Menu is the most obvious addition. Just like in Windows 7 and other versions before it, the Start Menu largely acts in the same way. Microsoft has done a u-turn here, but it's also considered the way it can modernize its Start Menu and it appears to have paid off. It's customizable enough that you can resize it, pin traditional and modern apps, or simply have it match the color of your desktop wallpaper. These hints of Windows 8 shine through directly in the Windows 10 Start Menu, and although the overall interface feels like the Windows desktop, the Start Menu feels truly new and yet familiar at the same time.

An OS X-like Expose for Windows users

Another big new user interface feature is a new Task View button that sits on the taskbar. It looks fairly innocuous, but when you trigger it you're thrown into a multitasking view that's very similar to Apple's OS X Expose feature. Multiple desktops are available from here, and you can switch between them with ease to manage multiple apps across different workspaces. It's the feature Windows has always needed, and Microsoft has borrowed elements from rival operating systems like OS X and Linux / Unix to really introduce this in Windows 10. But instead of making it identical to the competition, Microsoft has added in its productivity-focused snap views into Task View. You can snap apps in the same way you do in Windows 7 or Windows 8, and a new prompt will suggest apps that can be snapped alongside each other or windowed in complex ways. It appears to work well, even if there's a slight learning curve you'll need to get over to make the most out of it. I did notice that if you have apps running in a separate desktop space then it can get confusing to bring them to a different active desktop space, but this is an early build of Windows 10 and there's a long way to go until it's ready late next year.

Hints show future UI changes are on the way

Elsewhere, there are hints that Microsoft will revamp the user interface more. There's subtle drop shadows around apps, and a new bar on the taskbar that indicates what apps are active. There's also new icons for File Explorer and Desktop, but you can imagine that Microsoft will overhaul all of its icons to be more modern with Windows 10. Another big change is the ability to run universal modern apps in windows on the desktop. Microsoft demonstrated this originally at Build, but using it in practice just feels totally natural, as if it should have always been this way. You can snap these apps alongside each other, and they also seem to resize fairly well to make them a lot more usable for mouse and keyboard users.

Windows 10 might be fairly basic right now, but the signs are there that Microsoft understands its audience of Windows users. Microsoft's Joe Belfiore took the time to demonstrate a command prompt refresh that finally brings the ability to copy and paste directories with the keyboard. It's the most minor and geeky feature you'd ever expect in a Microsoft keynote, but it demonstrates that the company appears to be serious about overhauling Windows fully with Windows 10. With regular updates planned over the coming months before release, expect to see Windows 10 change in unexpected and welcomed ways. It might look like Windows 10 is just another Windows 7, but hopefully once the company is done tidying up the Windows desktop it will look and feel like a lot more.

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Did Ashley Tisdale Have 2 Major Hair Makeovers in 1 Day

GETTY

Sometimes we can't decide which rainbow hairstyle we love best: dip-dyed ombre ends, or full-out dramatic color. Ashley Tisdale is the latest celeb to become a fan of colorful hairstyles, and it totally looked like the actress showed off not one but two bright-hued hair makeovers in one day!

Yesterday, Ashley first shared a pic of her pinkish-purple hair while she was getting it dyed:

But then in her next pic, Ashley's hair looked completely blue! What?!

When Ashley followed up with a new series of selfies later in the day, she definitely had lilac dip-dyed ends:

It looks like Ashley's hair has been purple all along, but we kind of love the Marge Simpson blue look as well!

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Dolphins Can Sense Magnets, Study Suggests

Dolphins Can Sense Magnets, Study Suggests

By Tanya Lewis, Staff Writer

LiveScience

Dolphins can now add magnetic sense to their already impressive resume of abilities, new research suggests.
When researchers presented the brainy cetaceans with magnetized or unmagnetized objects, the dolphins swam more quickly toward the magnets, the new study found. The animals may use their magnetic sense to navigate based on the Earth's magnetic field, the researchers said.

A number of different animals are thought to possess this magnetic sense, called "magnetoreception," including turtles, pigeons, rodents, insects, bats and even deer (which are related to dolphins), said Dorothee Kremers, an animal behavior expert at the University of Rennes, in France, and co-author of the study published today (Sept. 29) in the journal Naturwissenschaften. [The 10 Most Amazing Animal Abilities]

"Inside the ocean, the magnetic field would be a very good cue to navigate," Kremers told Live Science. "It seems quite plausible for dolphins to have a magnetic sense."
Some evidence suggests both dolphin and whale migration routes and offshore live strandings may be related to the Earth's magnetic field, but very little research has investigated whether these animals have a magnetic sense.

Kremers and her colleagues found just one study that looked at how dolphins reacted to magnetic fields in a pool; that study found dolphins didn't show any response to the magnetic field. But the animals in that study weren't free to move around, and were trained to give certain responses.

In the new study, Kremers and her colleagues tested the magnetic sense of six bottlenose dolphins at the delphinarium of Planète Sauvage in France. The researchers presented the animals with barrels containing either a magnetized neodymium block or a demagnetized block of identical shape and density. Then the researchers video recorded the animals poking around the barrels.

When the barrel contained the magnetized block, the dolphins swam toward it much faster than when it contained the demagnetized block, Kremers and her colleagues observed, suggesting that dolphins have magnetoreception, the researchers said.

The dolphins could not tell the blocks apart by simply using echolocation or bouncing sound waves off of them, the researchers said.The animals were also free to swim in and out of the pool with the barrels or interact with each other.

Other than approaching the magnetized block faster, the dolphins didn't interact with the barrels any differently, the researchers said.

Exactly how dolphins perceive magnetic fields remains unclear, Kremers said. Scientists have proposed that animals that use magnetic sensing may have tiny "ferromagnetic" particles (such as magnetite) in their body cells that react with the magnetic field and signal the nervous system. Although magnetite has been found in the brain membranes of dolphins, it doesn't prove the animals use it to sense magnetic fields, the researchers said.

The magnetic blocks in the experiment had a field strength of about 1.2 tesla — orders of magnitude stronger than the Earth's magnetic field, which is between 4 and 5 microtesla. More studies are needed to test whether dolphins' potential magnetic sense is sensitive enough to detect the Earth's magnetic field, Kremers said.

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Intel’s Basis Takes Second Stab at Health Watch, With Peak

Intel’s Basis Takes Second Stab at Health Watch, With Peak

Lauren Goode

Re/code

Another day, another new wrist-wearable in gadgetland. But this one sounds … pretty compelling.
Basis, the Intel-owned maker of a health-tracking watch called the B1 Band, is introducing a new high-quality wristwatch that combines key elements of a health monitor, including step-counting and more accurate heart-rate tracking, with some features of a smartwatch, like phone notifications.

The new Peak watch is made of anodized aluminum and Gorilla Glass 3, and comes in two models — matte black and brushed silver. It has a touchscreen display, unlike the B1 Band, which has four tiny touchpoints along the face of the watch for toggling through display options.

The Peak also has a faster processor and an improved optical heart rate sensor. The previous B1 Band has an optical heart rate sensor, which infers your heart rate by shining light through your blood and capturing minute changes in the blood flow, but in my experience with the B1, the continuous heart-rate tracking wasn’t always accurate. Basis’s general manager Jef Holove says the optical heart rate sensor on the new Peak should be powerful enough to replace a heart-rate chest strap.

Notifications sent from a smartphone will eventually work on the Bluetooth LE-enabled Peak watch, although that feature won’t be available initially. And finally, the company’s compatible Basis app has been redesigned to support Peak. One of the new features of the app is that it will smartly reorder activities based on which goals are actually attainable for the wearer on any given day.
“We’re not trying to be a full-on smartwatch, but we will be able to do some of the essentials users want,” Holove said in an interview.

The new Peak watch will have the same price as the B1 Band — $200 — and will begin shipping in early November.

As Bonnie Cha and I wrote in a previous story, there has been a flurry of new watch and/or activity-tracker announcements in recent weeks, as hardware makers look to get their goods out there in time for the holiday season. Or, you know, before Apple’s watch comes to market.

But the Basis Peak watch certainly checks off a few feature boxes that the Apple Watch doesn’t (at least, from what we know about it right now). Work with both iOS and Android? Check. Claims four days of battery life? Check. Waterproof for swimming? Check. Tracks sleep? Check.

And Basis, which was acquired last March, now falls under Intel’s New Devices Group, which has made it clear it wants to stake its claim in the wearables market and not miss out as it did in mobile.
“Intel is working on a lot of stuff, from processors to IP, that will help us a lot in the future,” Holove said.

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